Venture Capital. Early-stage and private companies.

Venture capital is the discipline of saying no early and yes rarely. A company at seed or Series A has little to measure and a great deal to believe, so the desk is strict about the few things that can be known: how large the market really is, why this team is better placed than the next one, whether users behave the way the deck claims, and what the terms of the round mean for everyone who invests after it.

Members take a company from the first screen to a written memo. The memo carries a recommendation and names the two or three assumptions on which the case stands or falls. It then goes before the investment committee, where it is questioned by members who have done the same work and by investors who make these decisions for a living. Most cases end in a pass. The reasons are recorded with the same care as an approval, because a well-argued no is worth more than an enthusiastic yes.

What a member takes away

The ability to read a pitch deck against the evidence, to model a round and its dilution through to exit, and to defend a view in front of people whose job is to find its weakest point.